Forbidden Spell
by Horse 4eva
Summary: Avada Kedavra - once it leaves the lips, you can never take it back. People have been acting a little strange at Hogwarts lately and people are disappearing. Will Hermione be the only one able to save her best friends? Warning: Some violence.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: As you can tell I don't own any of the characters and also I know Filch is a squib but as the story progresses it should be easy to understand some of these events.

Seamus strolled through the halls of Hogwarts, munching on the contents of a packet of 'Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans' when he decided to drop his rubbish on the pleasant green grass once he entered the courtyards. Everything seemed so simple, it was the middle of the school year and it seemed everyone was getting along swimmingly. There was no controversy over at the Ministry of Magic nor had any recent articles been posted in the Daily Prophet reporting incidents of Death Eaters or word of 'He Who Must Not Be Named'. The only news students had been chatting about were uncomplicated and relatively cheery, like Argus Filch's holiday and return to Hogwarts and who was Lavender Brown's new beau?

"Hey Harry, hi Ron!" Seamus waved casually as he passed them by. They lazily waved back, not looking up from their potions text book. It surely wasn't their favourite class but there was an upcoming exam and they were getting busy; Seamus on the other hand totally unconcerned.

When all of a sudden, it was as though he'd been stung by a bee, Seamus could feel a searing pain nipping at his right ear. He turned to see Filch's menacing grimace spread across his wrinkled face. "You gonna' pick that rubbish up, hmm?"

"Yes, yes! So sorry sir!" cried Seamus as he scrambled on the ground to pick up the plastic package he had dropped earlier.

"I'm not letting you away with it this time!" grumbled Filch, tugging at Seamus' ear once more towards his office after he'd stood back up, rubbish in hand. "Toss that in the garbage as we go past. I'd like a word with you in my office!"

Seamus sat in Filch's filthy, dark and terrible excuse for an office. He was feeling sorry for himself and doodling on the stale piece of parchment Filch had thrown at him when he first sat down. "How much longer do I have to be in here?"

Filch sat cross-eyed in his chair for a moment then started to glare. He seemed a bit more hostile and crazier than usual and it was frightening. Guessing that maybe he had a lousy holiday and was just taking it out on him, he was started when Filch pounced out of his seat and pointed his wand at the boy. "Forever!"

"W-what do you mean?" he stammered, panicking and sweating frivolously. "What are you doing with that wand? I thought you couldn't do magic!"

"Do you think the staff here at Hogwarts work all day just to see you defile our grounds?" snapped Filch, bits of his saliva flying into Seamus' face. "Avada Kedavra!"

Meanwhile, Harry, Hermione and Ron sat clueless in the courtyard. Quidditch had been the hot topic of choice until Ron noticed the spot where Seamus had been taken away by Filch moments earlier. "Hey, did either of you see how angry Filch got when he saw Seamus littering?"

"No, I wasn't there," Hermione heaved a sigh. She never got to see any of the stimulating gossip as it went down. "I was waiting with Luna at the library for Neville just to be stood up. If you want to study around here it's best to do it on your own –"

"Well anyways," Harry interrupted, "he looked as if he was going to explode with rage! I'm not even exaggerating! He was –"

But Draco cut in, "Oh there you are..." His voice was nasally. "Weaselby, Scarhead," he stroked his chin pensively, "Hmm, seems I need a more personalised nickname for you Granger. For now I guess you'll just have to live with Mudblood," he snorted. Blaise and Pansy were by his sides, gleaming with pride and arrogance just as Malfoy was.

"Oh Malfoy give it a break!" Harry sighed, rolling his eyes at Draco attempts to make trouble. "What do you want Malfoy?"

"Superiority," he answered quickly. "But also to let you know about the game this weekend..."

"I already know that we have a match against Slytherin," Harry looked unimpressed.

"Well be prepared because we will crush you! Or at least, you might want to take extra care around bludgers Potter, they sure plan to take extra care of you!" he chortled along with Blaise and Pansy who had stayed quiet but remained in a sassy pose.

"You little twerp!" Hermione glared at him angrily. "I'll report you to Madam Hooch and it won't be too hard to decide who to believe."

"I wasn't talking to you mudblood," he held his hand up in front of her face. "Maybe 'snitch' will make an appropriate nickname for you?"

"Don't speak to her like that!" shouted Ron, standing up in protest.

"And what are you going to do about it?" he snarled then shoved the red headed boy over. Ron got to his feet and looked up to see Blaise and Pansy standing by Draco almost like body guards as they both rolled their sleeves up to their elbows.

"Malfoy!" snapped Filch as he wandered into the courtyard. "No bullying! You're going to have to come with me!"

"But they started it!" he lied obviously.

"Codswallop!" swore the man as he nipped onto Draco's ear as he'd done with Seamus. "You're coming to my office!"

Draco grimaced at the disgusting man as he drooled on the desk. His eyes were partially open and rolled back into his head. He looked like he was sleeping.

"Are you dead?" Draco enquired and prodded the man as he briefly left his desk with his wand.

"Get back to your seat!" Filch growled in his sleep.

"Ah!" jumped Malfoy as he quickly scampered back to his seat.

"You woke me," Filch's eyes shot open and he glowered at the nervous blonde. "You've been really starting to piss everyone off – but I've thought of a nice solution..."

"You can't speak to me like that. Don't you know who my father is?" he scolded pretentiously.

"Is his name..." Filch pulled out his wand and pointed it at him. "Avada Kedavra?"

To be continued...


	2. Rotten Stenches

Thankyou for the constructive and friendly reviews. I know that I have made some mistakes so far but hopefully I can work that into my story a bit. Also, I hope it is okay that this chapter is twice as long as the first.

The library smelled of putrid rot that evening as Hermione packed up her books. She'd been feeling neglected by her friends for some time now and it had begun to feel to her as though no one needed her anymore. Just before she'd risen from her seat, a hairy, bony hand rested a glowing lantern on the desk. She looked up to see Filch the caretaker; it wasn't much of a surprise, he was interrogating almost every kid around the school now for reasons unknown to her.

"Where did you get this book?" he snarled, lifting it up by its tattered spine. "It looks like it's from the restricted section..."

"It's my potions text book," Hermione sighed and held out her hand politely till he returned it. She ran her finger along the title. "See? It says 'Potions' across the front."

"Ah, very well..." Filch trailed off then took his lantern and strolled out of the library.

Hermione sat there dumbfounded for a moment. Something seemed very peculiar about Filch. She headed back towards the Gryffindor common room where she hoped her friends would welcome her with a warm and loving embrace, but she knew most wouldn't take their eyes off the fire or even acknowledge her.

"Hey Hermione, have you seen Ron?" asked Harry, an expression of worry spread across his face.

"No, not recently, why do you ask?" she felt a slight twang, he was always more interested in other people. She couldn't remember the last time he was excited or even happy to see her.

"Well, he had a detention with Filch yesterday and I haven't seen him since," Harry sighed, his forehead crumpled and his eyes watery.

"Maybe he killed him!" chuckled Dean. "The way he killed Seamus and Malfoy!"

"Don't joke about that," grumbled Ginny gently punching him in the arm.

"Stop worrying," Dean rolled his eyes at them, "they'll turn up."

Lavender suddenly poked her head through the doorway, looking quite distressed. "Everyone come quickly! You have to see this!"

"What is it?" asked a few of the others but Lavender was already running off before she could answer. Everyone followed along in blind curiosity.

The halls were packed with students chattering and rushing down to Hagrid's hut. Hermione saw almost every teacher making their way down as well.

"So what did you call us down here for Lavender?" Hermione prodded her, looking around at everyone huddled around.

"Look there, at the pumpkin patch..." she trailed off; it looked as though she was about to throw up.

Hermione took a few steps closer; she saw the face popping out of the dirt that everyone was staring at and her jaw dropped. There was also several other limbs tangled in the vine of the pumpkins.

"Filch?" Hermione muttered under her breath. "It can't be him – I – I just saw him just a few minutes ago."

While some of the students were weeping, others were just in shock. It was as if out of nowhere, Malfoy was across the crowd looking straight at her. When he'd noticed her returned gaze he gave a sly wink and slinked back into the crowd.

"Why does he have to be so arrogant?" she furrowed her brow at Harry standing next to her. "One of the staff has just been found dead and he's being his usual disrespectful self."

_What an asshole_, she thought to herself. Hermione looked over at all the teachers. Professor McGonagall's eyes were teary, Hagrid looked heartbroken (partially from his tainted pumpkins) and Dumbledore had a grave look upon his face.

"Students – back to your common rooms!" the wise old man boomed. Dumbledore needed to discuss matters with the other teachers and have the corpse removed from the school grounds.

Hermione was disappointed as she headed back to the dormitories with the others. She wanted to find out more about what had happened – and Malfoy – why had he been so strange? Had she imagined it all? Maybe Filch had been ambushed straight after his visit in the library... and left him half buried in the pumpkin patch in a rush. But it still didn't make sense. There wouldn't have been enough time for the killer to do it in broad daylight without being seen. Hermione needed to investigate. She separated from the others and instead of going back to the common room she snuck over to the library.

"Hermione, what are you doing here?" Draco ambushed. He had entered the library only a moment after her. His voice sounded strangely acquiescent and his actions different to the Malfoy she knew. "Why aren't you at the Gryffindor common room with everyone else?"

"I – I just needed to grab a few books for homework. Hang on, it's none of your business anyway, Malfoy," she grumbled and stood there with her hands on her hips to protest his presence. Hermione refused to continue her search with him watching.

"Hermione, go to the common room," he ordered, pointing to the door. He glanced towards the forbidden section and let out a sigh.

"No, why don't you go to _your_ common room? Also, stop calling me Hermione. Coming from your lips it kind of creeps me out," she frowned. "What happened to 'snitch' and your personal favourite?"

"I think it would be for the best if you left. Didn't you hear that there is a killer running around Hogwarts? He could be right in this room at this very moment and you wouldn't even know it. Or worse," he warned her, and then once again glanced nervously over at the restricted section. "You don't want to become a 'suspect' yourself do you?"

Hermione hadn't stopped to think about that, and followed his line of sight out of curiousity. "What's over there Malfoy that you look so worried about?"

"Nothing," he mumbled and shook his head.

"Well then I hope you don't mind me having a look..." she trailed off sauntering towards the restricted section.

"No!" he snapped then gave her a swift kick to the shin. "I told you to leave!"

"Ouch!" Hermione screeched writhing in pain. "Oh Merlin, I think you broke something! "

She was surprised to see Draco trying to help her up but she quickly shoved him away. After all, he was the one that put her in this state in the first place.

"Come on, let me take you to the hospital wing," he insisted and continued trying to help her up.

"Get away from me!" she yelped and forced herself up, hopping madly away from him and back to the common room. Hermione was starting to feel very suspicious of Draco, she needed to come back later and see what he was keeping secret in the forbidden section.


End file.
